The requirements of printing inks are manifold. Among other requirements, inks for ink-jet printers should be low viscosity liquids or solutions prior to being printed, but then dry rapidly when printed, to form fixed print.
Meeting the physical and chemical requirements of printing, inks usually involves a number of components. However, in certain fields of technology (for instance, food packaging, medical devices or toys) it is especially important to reduce—or even eliminate—the possible leaching of ink components from the ink. Stricter requirements are therefore placed on inks for use in such technical fields.
EP 1616897 relates to polymeric co-initiators, described to be useful in radiation curable compositions such as varnishes, lacquers and printing inks, e.g. radiation curable inkjet inks.
EP2053103 provides ink-jet inks exhibiting improved complete curing and high curing speed, making them more suitable for food packaging applications.
Patent publications relating to polymer-bound dye materials include U.S. Pat. No. 5,459,222, U.S. Pat. No. 4,137,243, U.S. Pat. No. 5,786,410, U.S. Pat. No. 4,619,990, CN101665575, CN101735343 and KR20050016585.
Other publications relating to polymer-bound dye materials include J. Polym. Sci. A: Polym. Chem, Vol. 40, 1468-1475 (2002), J. Polym. Sci. A: Polym. Chem, Vol. 45, 576-587 (2007), Macromolecules, 2007, 40 (7), pp 2344-2351 and Macromolecules, 2009, 42 (15), pp 5486-5491.